Is 100,000 a lot?

jbljbl
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Was anyone else surprised at how few preorders Apple got for the G5? A year or so ago they would sell 200,000 PowerMacs a quarter. Even last quarter IIRC they sold over 100,000. Supposedly everyone was waiting for these new faster machines. Well they are here now, and half way through the quarter they only have orders for 100,000 (and that counts the last week of last quarter). Based on the idea that poor sales the last couple quarters represented people postponing purchases until the G5 was released, and that steady state sales for PowerMacs should be at least 150,000, and that sales would be heavily front end loaded, I was figuring that they would get 150,000-200,000 pre-orders. Does anyone else find the 100,000 number disappointing?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 36
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,425member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JBL

    Was anyone else surprised at how few preorders Apple got for the G5? A year or so ago they would sell 200,000 PowerMacs a quarter. Even last quarter IIRC they sold over 100,000. Supposedly everyone was waiting for these new faster machines. Well they are here now, and half way through the quarter they only have orders for 100,000 (and that counts the last week of last quarter). Based on the idea that poor sales the last couple quarters represented people postponing purchases until the G5 was released, and that steady state sales for PowerMacs should be at least 150,000, and that sales would be heavily front end loaded, I was figuring that they would get 150,000-200,000 pre-orders. Does anyone else find the 100,000 number disappointing?



    I don't find it disappointing at all. Many people will not preorder. They'll wait until they can take the machine home. I'm not a preorder guy. I hate lines whether they be physical or virtual. You want my money? You better have product available in a matter of a few days. 100,000 souls were more patient than I would be.
  • Reply 2 of 36
    flounderflounder Posts: 2,674member
    You do realize many many people will not buy a machine that they can't try out for themselves first/hasn't been independently tested.



    They're expecting to get back to 200000 per quarter. I'd say 100,000 PRE orders is pretty good
  • Reply 3 of 36
    big macbig mac Posts: 480member
    Even if it's not disappointing, 100k isn't too spectacular. The G5 was supposed to be the sales leader. You'd think all of that pent up demand would have brought Apple a lot more than that. It's strange that Apple included that fact in the press release.
  • Reply 4 of 36
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,425member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Big Mac

    Even if it's not disappointing, 100k isn't too spectacular. The G5 was supposed to be the sales leader. You'd think all of that pent up demand would have brought Apple a lot more than that. It's strange that Apple included that fact in the press release.



    Yes but realize that many of us expected the entry level G5 to be 1599-1699 starting. Had Apple hit this pricepoint they would have higher sales potentially.
  • Reply 5 of 36
    brunobruinbrunobruin Posts: 552member
    Not to mention the fact that it has only been eight weeks since Apple started taking orders; not a full quarter.



    I think a lot of people are waiting for benchmarks before deciding what to buy. Is there a difference between the 1.6 and 1.8 that justifies the higher price? Is the dual so much faster that it's really the best value? I would really like to see what I'm getting for my money before plunking down the cash.



    Besides, if Apple thought the numbers were below expectations they would not have announced them at all. We'd have had to wait for the financial results to see how G5s were selling.
  • Reply 6 of 36
    lemon bon bonlemon bon bon Posts: 2,383member
    ...and I read the new G5s were eating into their margins at that.



    Still, 100,000 is pretty good for pre-order.



    I won't pre-order. There's more people like me. I like to be able to go into a store and test things out. And let's face it, by the time Apple ships the dual 2 gigger in plentiful supply and by the time most people get their money together...it will be Rev B time! 2.5 gig!



    I don't believe in hanging on for 'vapourware', competing for initial batches of things, like Oliver Twist in the porridge queue. I'm a customer. I want things in plentiful supply and to get what I want, when I want it...and what position I want it in...er...ahem...



    I think Apple are on course to shatter 200,000 units for the quarter. When people can get in the stores and touch these beauties in the flesh...and word gets out about the performance of these machines...the blue touch paper will be lit.



    Re: the price. Kinda agreed. However, with rev B, the current speed grades will probably move into the current G4 tower range (and the G4 towers phased out...The G4 Tower is playing price buffer to the G5 as the eMac is to the iMac2.) This will mean that many more people will be able to afford the G5 goodness and it will mean that for about a grand early 2004, a 1.6 Gig G5 will be picked up cheaply and still out perform Intel's latest 3.2 or 3.4 gig Processor!



    It will only get better for the G5 come Christmas/New Year. I think Apple will hit 300,000 unit sales for the Quarter before then.



    If they don't...they won't be far off and like you say, price may be a small factor this time.



    It will probably be another week before we get ours in the UK...we always have to wait a week, a month later for anything good from the yankeedoodles...



    Lemon Bon Bon
  • Reply 7 of 36
    brunobruinbrunobruin Posts: 552member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Big Mac

    Even if it's not disappointing, 100k isn't too spectacular. The G5 was supposed to be the sales leader.



    Apple themselves said they don't expect sales to be at the same level Power Macs used to sell when they were still hot items. The whole laptop-as-desktop concept has bitten off a big piece of desktop sales. Fred Anderson said they hoped to get back to 200,000 units per quarter with the G5. For comparison, the eMac/iMac line sold about 285,000 units last quarter.
  • Reply 8 of 36
    ensign pulverensign pulver Posts: 1,193member
    This is an excellent point, Bruno. The G4 had 150,000 pre-orders in '99, but there was little else in the Apple lineup to compete with it. Current portables serve so well as desktop replacements that there is a huge new set of customers who will never use a desktop again, even one as fast as the G5.



    100,000 pre-orders and 200,000 sales per quarter are excellent figures for the laptop dominated 21st century.
  • Reply 9 of 36
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    Just for reference, Apple boasted 150K of pre-orders when the G4 shipped.



    So in that respect, yeah, it must be a little disappointing. The sluggish economy (plus maybe the increased interest in laptops) has taken its toll.



    On the plus side, 100K pre-orders sure isn't anything to be ashamed of. And it's clear the most popular model is the Dual 2Ghz, at Apple's highest price point. That's got to be good news.



    edit. took a while to post, Ensign, and missed yours -- but at least that '99 150K figure is now CONFIRMED.
  • Reply 10 of 36
    cubedudecubedude Posts: 1,556member
    How many PowerBook G5's do you think Apple would ship per quarter? Just curious as to what everyone else thinks.
  • Reply 11 of 36
    jbljbl Posts: 555member
    The way I had it figured, if they were getting back to the steady 200,000 they would have to expect the number to be higher in the first quarter after they went on sale due to pent up demand. I am figuring that the "gotta get it first" factor just about cancels out the "I won't buy it until I can carry it out the door" factor. I realize it has only been 8 weeks since the announcement but that means that they are currently selling at a rate of 160,000 a quarter and that rate can only get worse as pent up demand is filled. Apple does seem to be a little worried about sales since they cut or expanded their education and government pricing policies even before any machines were shipped.



    Several of you have suggested that the "I won't buy until I can carry it out the door" factor is larger than the "gotta get it first" factor. Are there any figures to back that up? How did preorders of the iPod, iMac or 17" PowerBook compare to the rate of sales after they were readily available?
  • Reply 12 of 36
    jbljbl Posts: 555member
    While I was writing that last post several people posted mentioning the original G4 preorders. How many weeks did it take them to get those preorders and how many did they actually sell the first quarter they became available?
  • Reply 13 of 36
    macsrgood4umacsrgood4u Posts: 3,007member
    At the last Apple analyst conference (available on Quicktime) one of the Apple VPs stated that they expected to sell about 400,000 G5's in the first year. They did not expect sales to be as in the past when as much as twice that many would have been purchased. So I'd say, 100,000 backorders is excellent.
  • Reply 14 of 36
    brunobruinbrunobruin Posts: 552member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by JBL

    Several of you have suggested that the "I won't buy until I can carry it out the door" factor is larger than the "gotta get it first" factor. Are there any figures to back that up? How did preorders of the iPod, iMac or 17" PowerBook compare to the rate of sales after they were readily available?



    I don't know about preorders, but sales of the entire PowerBook LINE were only about 160,000 each quarter.



    So many of Apple's key markets, like advertising, are still really hurting. Agencies that are still laying off employees are not making major investments in new equipment. Education budgets, public and private, are really tight or shrinking. I think that there will be a lot of demand for G5s when the economy picks up.
  • Reply 15 of 36
    yevgenyyevgeny Posts: 1,148member
    100k orders is pretty good. That means something like 100k people decided to order a machine several months in advance while it was still technically vapor. I'm not the kind of person who waits in a virtual queue for something for that long, and I think that there are quite a few people who would purchase these machines once they are immediately available. Apple will sell quite a few of these machines.
  • Reply 16 of 36
    medialabmedialab Posts: 19member
    I believe the bulk of tower sales will come from business and professional circles. Video post houses and publishing companies will likely order in batches of 20 - 150. Any competently-run business that lays out that kind of expenditure has a procedure to follow. And it doesn't involve buying things sight unseen -- no matter how groovy it is. I'm betting that Apple will see sales of 350,000 units between now and the end of the year.
  • Reply 17 of 36
    xmogerxmoger Posts: 242member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by medialab

    I believe the bulk of tower sales will come from business and professional circles. Video post houses and publishing companies will likely order in batches of 20 - 150. Any competently-run business that lays out that kind of expenditure has a procedure to follow. And it doesn't involve buying things sight unseen -- no matter how groovy it is. I'm betting that Apple will see sales of 350,000 units between now and the end of the year.



    Yeah, most customers buying these towers aren't the same customers that preordered imacs or cubes.
  • Reply 18 of 36
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by medialab

    Any competently-run business that lays out that kind of expenditure has a procedure to follow. And it doesn't involve buying things sight unseen -- no matter how groovy it is.



    And that's what makes the number of preordered G5s (professional workstations, priced accordingly) impressive. This is not a bunch of consumers satisfying gadget lust. Well, not entirely (murbot?).
  • Reply 19 of 36
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Amorph

    And that's what makes the number of preordered G5s (professional workstations, priced accordingly) impressive. This is not a bunch of consumers satisfying gadget lust. Well, not entirely (murbot?).



    1st: Haha



    2nd: I was going to get it out of gadget lust, but decided a PowerBook would suit me better. The PowerMac will come next year right before college.
  • Reply 20 of 36
    msanttimsantti Posts: 1,377member
    Quote:

    I'm not a preorder guy. I hate lines whether they be physical or virtual. You want my money? You better have product available in a matter of a few days.



    I didn't realize you had to front several grand months before you actually get your order. Didn't happen with mine?



    The main reson I preordered was the this feeling I had about being unable to get my hands on a dualie for sometime after Apple shipped machines to retail. I think it might be a while until you see a dualie sitting on a shelf somewhere.



    Plus, I needed that Radeon 9800 Pro as well. Yeah, you can get it retail but that one blows due to lack of ADC.



    Yeah, you can pay like a hundred bucks for an adapter. Buying at retail costs another hundred bucks as the bump to a 9800 Pro via BTO is 300 bucks.



    It would cost me 200 bucks more if I got a dualie via retail.



    Its kind of why I am part of the 100,000.
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